#TallTakes: BLACKBALLED!

Those of us that follow these sorts of things knew this would happen the second Kaepernick’s protest of the US national anthem happened. Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick has been blackballed from the NFL.

There wasn’t some sort of official release, an NFL “Burn Notice” if you will, just the fact that ass-clowns like Josh McCown and Mike Glennon are still employed are proof, the stats tell the entire story.

As quiet as it’s been kept, Kaepernick had a more than serviceable year last season averaging a 90 quarterback rating for the entire season including his injury-riddled first few games despite having the worst receiving corps in the NFL.

He finished the season with a completion percentage around 60%, having thrown for 2200 yards, 14 touchdowns and 4 interceptions. He also ran for 468 yards.

Mike Glennon didn’t accumulate any stats because he isn’t good enough to play over starting Tampa Bay quarterback Jameis Winston (who actually had a worse quarterback rate than Kaepernick, in 5 games with Cleveland, Josh McCown threw for 1100 yards, 6 touchdowns, 6 interceptions and a 35.1 quarterback rating. These clowns have jobs and Kaepernick doesn’t. And talking heads want us to believe that it’s about football.

Miss me with that bullshit fam.

The most disturbing part of this entire Kaepernick being blackballed thing isn’t that people being upset about his protest are completely overlooking why he’s protesting. Kaepernick has stated repeatedly that his protests are about racial inequality in America, yet he continues to see opposition from mostly old, mostly white men. Does that mean that they’re okay with racial equality?

Doesn’t the FBI have more important things to do than track Brady’s dirty laundry?

Tom Brady’s jersey from this year’s Superbowl famously went missing right after the epic comeback, so of course the FBI found it.

It’s not like they don’t have anything better to devote the resources necessary to track a piece of dirty laundry all the way to Mexico.

So well done FBI. The world is a better place for Tom Brady having his sweaty ass jersey back.

Serge Ibaka and Robin Lopez want to make NBA fights great again

NBA fights aren’t a thing anymore.

I’m not one to advocate for violence, but it’s kind of embarrassing how “hold me back” NBA “fights” have gotten in the 13 years since the “Malace at the Palace” incident between the Indiana Pacers and the Detroit Pistons in late 2005.

Serge Ibaka and Robin Lopez apparently feel the same way, and this past week they got in a real life fight, with punches and everything.

I’m sure Adam Silver and a number of former players, GMs and advisers are in an office in midtown Manhattan right now trying to figure out a way to make sure this shit never happens again.

The NBA has fought for years to have the most likable, marketable group of players in any professional sport, and by and large it’s been successful. Commissioner Adam Silver, three years in has been toeing the line in keeping NBA players marketable while allowing them to express their opinions and have personalities.

If a couple more incidents like this happens (and there’s no reason to believe that they will), we’ll see how quickly this expressive, personality shit gets shut down.

The NFL is really wants to be the “No Fun League”

The NFL is on the extreme opposite ends of the spectrum from the NBA in terms of wanting its players to exhibit personality or opinions (see Colin Kaepernick above).

In its neverending quest to be whack as hell, the NFL released an instructional video on player celebration.

I can write a dissertation on how butt it is to try and legislate spontaneous outbursts of excitement in an overly violent and emotional game, but I’d rather speculate on what the NFL’s ideal end-zone celebration is:

Any sport that wants to outlaw this

is a sport that just isn’t worth watching.

The Knicks will run the “Full Triangle” next year. They will be “full Garbage”

Last week Knicks Coach Jeff Hornacek said that his team would run the “Full Triangle” offense next year, more than likely because team president Phil Jackson coerced him into saying that by dangling his contract extension in front of his face.

Anyone who knows anything about basketball knows that the triangle is not at all suitable to basketball in 2017, hell it wasn’t even suitable to basketball in 1988 when Phil Jackson installed it on Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bull teams but it worked with it’s tight spacing and weird movements.

The most telling indictment of the triangle isn’t the way it looks, but the instances in when it worked. When Jordan, Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Kobe, Shaq, Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol, some of the most talented and smartest players to ever take the floor, ran it, it worked like clockwork. It’s never worked otherwise, at any level. This leads me to believe that the triangle’s success had more to do with the caliber of the players running it than the system itself. Instead of trying to dictate what sets the Knicks run, Jackson should be spending his time trying to get players on his team who aren’t broken down Bulls castoffs like Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah or just hot garbage like Kyle O’Quinn and Justin Holiday.

Just saying.

With the caliber of player the Knicks have outside of Carmelo Anthony and Kristaps Porzingis, I expect the “full triangle” to look like “full garbage”.